FEATURE
RAW MATERIALS
Velorim is hoping to create a sustainable alternative for tyres and inner tubes through its National Bicycle Tyre Recycling Scheme. Daniel Blackham speaks to directors Richard Lawrence and Russ Taylor
yres and inner tubes are one of the cycling industry’s most common service items. Whether that’s due to wear and tear, punctures, or a complete blowout, the trade gets through its fair share of rubber. But what happens to that rubber at the end of its life? An
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estimated 9,300 tonnes of tyres and tubes end up in landfill each year, each taking around 80 years to decompose. Once broken down, toxins and carcinogens can leach into the water table. The most common alternative to landfill is incineration for energy. However this comes with its own pitfalls. Although an energy rich material, for every kilogram of rubber burned, it produces nearly three kilos of carbon dioxide. Add into this other chemical by-products like sulphur dioxide and carbon monoxide, and it’s not as sustainable an alternative as first appears. Velorim and its National Bicycle Tyre Recycling Scheme is hoping to change that. I recently caught up with Velorim directors Richard Lawrence and Russ Taylor to learn about the challenges and successes of the scheme, and what the future holds.
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BACKGROUND Velorim was founded off the back of lived experience for both Lawrence and Taylor. “Russ and I were trustees of a bicycle recycling charity,” explained Lawrence. “You get donated an old bike because somebody just wants to get rid of it, [once broken down] we end up with a pile of steel, aluminium, plastic and rubber. The first three are very easily recycled. But we found nobody who would recycle tyres and tubes.”
The pair were offered disposal services by companies that handled car tyres at a charge of £2 a tyre, but found that most of their waste would end up in a skip and eventually find their way to landfill. “We wanted to find out why,” said Lawrence. “A little bit of research later, we found that the steel bead is the core problem. Its very high tensile - basically piano wire. If you put it in a car tyre shredder, the shredder itself strips out the steel and wraps it around the cutting teeth, putting a machine down for 48 hours.
September 2023 | 7
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